d habit will keep most of them away from the library.
They will see the daily papers at their wonted places of resort, and the
room, necessarily lacking in much of the freedom of the club, will fail
to attract very many of them. They will not form the habit of visiting
it, even though they might enjoy it if the habit were formed. It must
also be remembered that increasing numbers of the manufacturing concerns
are providing their employees with reading of this kind, and thus
limiting the use of the city library.

In some libraries the attempt to reach men has gone still further and
has led to an inclusion of attractions which are ordinarily regarded as
outside the work of a library. They have attempted to combine to some
degree the privileges of a club with that of the public library. The
Stevens Point Library has a club room, equipped with billiard tables,
cards, etc., as well as with technical journals and similar books. This,
the librarian reports, is very successful in attracting boys, many of
whom learn to use the library. Men, however, do not come in large
numbers, as they do not care to use a place frequented by boys, and in
which smoking is not permitted. At Wausaukee a special room with games
and where lunch is served has been established at the library as a means
of furnishing a sort of club room for lumber men who come to the
village, especially on Sunday, and who have no other place of resort,
except the saloon. How far such methods are advisable as a part of
library work is a question which will often be asked during the coming
years and which only experience can answer. At present such enterprises
have not gone beyond the stage of early experiment.

Summing up the result, I would frankly confess that the reports which I
have received are not numerous enough for a positive judgment, yet it is
my impression that where there is an income large enough to provide a
special librarian and a public large enough to warrant the expense, this
movement for special libraries for men is likely to succeed. It seems
also to be true that where the library provides the men with the
opportunity for reading only, and does not furnish guidance for readers,
no very large use is made of technical books and there is no greatly
increased use of the library in general. How to guide the reading seems,
therefore, to be the central factor in the solution of the problem.

In a small town a special librarian is impossible, for financial